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Month: May 2016

Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded May 16, May 26, and December 12, 2015. Mixed May 13, 2016.

Genesis: I came up with this song in 2000. I think I wrote the lyrics at my work desk during my lunch period and then that night composed the very simple tune. My English major wife, Theresa, had a hard time with “laying” instead of “lying.” Over time she has gotten more comfortable with the word.

About six years ago, Jan Hauenstein, a friend and songwriting collaborator, asked if there were any lyrics of mine that he could set to music. I sent him a few lyrics that had no music, along with “Laying in the Weeds.” Jan had not heard my version. He came up with a mellow tune that ended up on his next album. After hearing Jan’s recording, I recorded a simple folk-blues demo. Last year I finally tackled a full arrangement with a harder edge.

Genesis: This song took a long time to complete. I came up with the music in the early 1990s. I recall playing it on a grand piano at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota in July 1994, during a break from recording my first album, Transfer Point. Brent Sigmeth, the recording engineer and co-producer, thought it sounded pretty cool.

I wrote the first set of lyrics on February 10, 2008. I had read a news story about Cairo, Illinois, which recounted how the city had descended into an abandoned, obliterated place. Cairo, pronounced “K-Row” by outsiders and “Care-O” by locals, sits at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. From the 1860s into much of the Twentieth Century, Cairo was a prosperous town. Merchants and shippers built great Italianate mansions. Photos I have viewed online show these buildings in decay.

I imagined an interior dialogue by a truck driver heading out from Memphis on Highway 51, bound for Cairo. The driver is trying to sort out his life as darkness descends. I revised the lyrics on April 16 and 21, 2015.

The arrangement is spare, though I couldn’t resist playing a guitar solo.

Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded May 7 and May 8, 2016. Mixed May 8, 2016.

Genesis: This song dates back to 1979. I was in graduate school and was making music with John Plomondon, a fellow American Studies student and a multi-talented musician. I came up with the descending chord progression that opens the song and the rest of the music quickly followed. I can’t recall where I came up with the title/chorus line.

I recorded a guitar demo and in 1980 John played piano on another demo version. I never returned to make a final version until this week. The earlier versions were taken at a slow tempo. This version is much more upbeat.

Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded May 1, 4, and 5, 2016. Mixed May 5, 2016.

Genesis: I was goofing around with my wood-bodied National resonator baritone guitar on November 28, 2012. I hit upon a melody/riff and played around with it for 20 or 30 minutes. The line “down on the cabin floor” came out of my mouth and I decided that I would stick with that for the title and refrain. It was a catchy blues. Some of the lyrics on the final version are on the demo I recorded to my iPhone that day. However, it was not until November 1, 2014 that I wrote the final lyrics and added the bridge section.

Unlike my recent postings, this is no singer-songwriter tune with poetic lyrics. It is just a raunchy blues, built on the repetition of the word “sometimes.” In my head I hear the late Levon Helm singing it. I think a gravelly voice would suit the tune best, but it seems such voices are the result of heavy cigarette smoking. I really enjoyed playing the electric lead guitar on this track. I haven’t done much electric blues picking the past few years.